Soaping and cleaning device



Aug 28, 1928 C. FIELD SO'APING AND CLEANING DEVICE Filed 00%.. 8, 1925INVENTOR ['rwy i'eld I 9 ATTORNEY Patented. Aug. 28, 1928.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

CROSBY FIELD, OF BROOKLYN, NEW YORK, ASSIGNOR TO BR ILLO MANUFACTURING.

COMPANY, INC, A CORPORATION OF NEW YORK.

SOAPING AND CLEANING DEVICE.

Application filed October 8, 1925. Serial No. 61,186.

My present invention is shown as embodied in a device particularlyadapted for applying soap and water to cleanor scrub floors or dishes orhousehold utensils, particularly aluminum utensils and metal surfacesgenorally. I

Properly cleaningsuch articles and surfaces, particularly kitchenutensils, usually involves removing considerable coatings of grease orother clinging or sticky materials. Removal of these is facilitated. bysoap and water, but direct rubbing of the soap on the grease and dirt isundesirable because it tends to contaminate, abrade and waste the soap,and I find that it is unnecessary provided the action of the soap andwater is supplemented by mechanical scraping and scrubbing in accordance with my present invention.

Accordingly, Iprovide acake of soap enclosed in a wrapper of metalfabric that is not readily clogged by the grease or dirt; that isadapted to afford reasonable protection for the soap while freelyexposing it to the water for solution and sudsing; and that affordseffective scraping and scrubbing means which does not score or scar thesurface of the metal.

The above and other features of my invention will be more evident fromthe following description in connection with the accompanying drawings,in which Fig. 1 is a face view of a cake of soap w th knitted ribbonfabric wrapper, illustrating one form of the invention, layers of thefab ric being broken away to show the cake 0 soa Fig. :2 is an edge viewof the complete rticle a Fig. 3 is a detail section on the line 3-3,Fig. 1;

Fig. 4 is an enlarged view showing one form of metal ribbon fabric thatmay be used.

As shown in the drawings, a cake of soap, 1, is enclosed in fabric, 2.

The fabric I prefer to use is a relatively fine mesh fabric of flexiblemetal ribbons preferably of non-ferrous relatively soft metals or alloyssuch as copper, alum num or German silver. A desirable metal is an alloymuch like that employed in ordinary tinsel.

While the weave may be widely varied, it will be evident that metalribbons bent in the slidable loops required for stocking-knit fabricafford natural scraping edges that are not too harsh, combined with anydesired size of mesh for protecting the soap and scrubbing the surfaceto be cleaned. The width of the ribbon may be, say, eight to twelvetimes its thicknesses and, say, 1/16 to 1/64 inch wide by, say, 1/500 to1/100 inch thick. The metal fabric envelope may be secured aboutthe cakeof soap in any desired way. A cheap way is to have the envelope of thinflexible copper or tinsel-like ribbons made on a stocking knittingmachine. This or any other suitable fabric may be formed as a tube, thecake of soap inserted therein, the ends of the tube closed andv foldedover and secured together by wire or other suitable fastening means, andthe whole flattened and formed to standard size in a suitable press.This has the advantage that one face of the pad has a large part of itseffective Working surface comprised of scraping ribbon which will beafforded by the enclosing fabric. The reverse or folded-over side iscovered by so many thicknesses of ribbon fabric that it forms a softcushion for the hand or a deep .elastic pad for application to thesurface to be cleaned; also the fingers of the user may be slipped intothe pocket formed between the folded back ends and the body of theknitted tube, thereby affording a convenient means for holding the soapwhen in use.

In the present embodiment the fabric is in four layers, 2, 2, 2 2.Preferably the fabric is in the form of a tube much longer than the cakeof soap. The soap is slipped into the tube, the free ends then beingfolded back against a face of the soap as at 2, 2, and after securing bywire or other suitable bond, 3, the free ends. 2*, 2 are reversely benttoward the ends of the cake of soap and are preferably more or lesscrushed and flattened to form the completed article shown in Fig. 2. v

WVhere there are multiple layers, they may be formed by telescoping fourseparate pieces of the fabric or by telescoping back and forthsuccessive portions of a single length. It will be evident, however,that while the tubular form is convenient, there are many other ways inwhich wrapping may be applied around and securely fastened upon the cakeof soap. ,7

The fabric used for the wrapper may be of any desiredcross-section andthe weave or knit of the fabric may be as indicated in Fig. 4. Here itconsists of ribbons interengaged longitudinally of the fabric in slip'loops. The ribbon loops may assume an infinite variety of positionsunder different tensions and pressures, in the different parts of thefabric, by reason of the loop structure in combination with thespringiness and ribbon shape of the metal. A characteristic relationshown in Fig. 4 is where the fabric is not tightly stretched so that theelastic stiffness of the ribbon loops has an opportunity to permit theribbons to assume a charac teristic position more or less edgewise tothe surface. This is of advantage for several reasons. It tends topresent the scraping edges of the ribbon as edgewise as possible to thesurface of the cake of soap and consequently in the best possibleposition for scraping the surface to be cleaned. This also causes theopenings for flow of water through the fabric, to and from the soap, tobe of maximum size for a given amount of ribbon, per unit. area of thesoap. There is opportunity for considerable elastic play or relativemovement between the surface of the soap and the fabric, so that theinner surface of the fabric may be caused to have a variable rubbing andscraping action on the surface of the soap. For instance, when thedevice is used merely for suds ing water, rubbing the surface of thefabric by the hand will promote a very rapid solution of the soap andwater.

Even when the knitted fabric is of quite fine mesh, the scraping edgesare effective and the mesh is self cleansing, or at least is readilycleansed because of the freedom with which the water may be circulatedto and from the soap. I

While fine mesh fabric may be used in a single layer to serve any or allof the above purposes, and while the stretching tension of the fabricmay be varied within wide limits to modify the natural positions of. themetal ribbon therein, I prefer multiple layers of relatively loosefabric, because they afford an elastic, heavily cushioned working facefor the pad, making it self accommodating to the work while at the sametime protecting the soap. It will be evident that in this form ofcushioning the deepest layers of the cushion are as readily selfcleaning as the outer layer. In this respect, the present form of myinvention has an advantage over the form shown in my companionapplication, Serial No. 61,187, filed October 8, 1925,

wherein the paddin between the cake of soap and the metal abric wrapperis in the \form of a pad of metal wool.

If the metal ribbons of the fabric are of as soft metal and as thin asmay be desirable for properly scouring metal surfaces without scratchingthem, rough usage of the device may wear out the fabric before the soaphas been used up. If this happens in the case of the preferred form, theonly result is to expose successive layers of fabric each of which hasbeen up to that time protected from injury by the layer that has becomeworn out. The novelty and advantage of this feature of my invention willbe readily appreciated. The number of layers of wrapper supplied may bedesigned with reference to the strength of the ribbons employed in thefabric and with reference to the size of the cake of soap, for thepurpose and with the result that the wrapper will last as long as thesoap.

Where the wrapper is a very heavy metal fabric, either woven orotherwise, there may he only a single layer of fabric wrapper, and insuch case any violence that ma destroy the wrapper, will leave the soapstill in useful form, because the soap is not anchored to ormechanically interengaged with the mesh of the wrapper and can beslipped out of the wrapper at. any time.

It will be evident, however, that in certain cases the cake of soap mayhave one or more faces embedding the fabric. Even when the article ismade as shown in Fig. 1, the maker or user may bring about this resultby soaking the lower face of the soap until it softens enough topenetrate the meshes of the fabric. Even when this happens as to oneface, the other face will still provide cushion pad scraper surface forengagement with the work.

It will be noted that the soap affords a somewhat yieldable or non-rigidbut substantial backing for the ribbon fabric; also that in the formshown the faces of the soap cake are recessed so that when underpressure most of the area of the wrapper fabric can yield before itcontacts with the soap. In normal operation, this tends. to relieve thefabric from deforming stresses, tending to preserve the form of theweave and the resilience of the ribbons in the free areas of the fabricparticularly in the inner layers. This resilience is sufficientto takeup slack such as might be produced by considerable permanent stretchingout and straightening of ribbon mesh in various parts of the fabric. I

It will be-obvious that as concerns certain of the broader claims, theexpression cake of soap is intended as descriptive of hard soap and isintended to include such soap whether in the form of one or more lumpsor cakes.

Iclaim:

1. A cleaning device, comprising an open ended tube of metal fabric, asolid backing tube being folded over said backing toward therein, theends of said tube being folded each other, and means fastening the endsto 1 over said backing toward each other, and each other to secure thecake of soap therein; means fastening the ends to each other to se-Signed at New York, in the county of New 5 cure the solid backingtherein. York, and State of New York, this 7th day of 2. In a cleaningdevice, an open ended tube October, A. D. 1925. comprising a pluralityof layers of metal fabric, a cake of soap therein, the ends of saidCROSBY FIELD.

